THE BOOK OF BARUCH
LESSON 2
PART II: THE PRAYER OF THE EXILES (1:15-3:8)
"Israel
was, in fact, the people of the covenant with God, a covenant that it broke
many times. Whenever it became aware of its infidelity "and in the history of
Israel, there was no lack of prophets and others who awakened this awareness "it
appealed to mercy. In this regard, the books of the Old Testament give us very
many examples. Among the events and texts of greater importance, one may
recall: the beginning of the history of the Judges (3:7-9), the prayer of
Solomon at the inauguration of the Temple (1 Kng 8:22-53), part of the
prophetic work of Micah (Mic 7:18-20), the consoling assurances given by Isaiah
(Is 1:18; 5:4-16), the cry of the Jews in exile (cf. Bar 2:11-3:8), and the
renewal of the covenant after the return from exile (cf. Neh 9)."
St. John Paul II, Dives in misericordia, 4
Part II of the Book of Baruch (1:15-3:8) is a prayer in which the Jewish exiles admit their guilt and express hope for redemption.
Baruch 1:15-22 ~ Confessions of Sins
15 You must say: Saving justice is
the Lord's, we have only the look of shame we bear, 16 as is the case today for
the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for our kings and
princes, our priests, our prophets, and for our ancestors [fathers*], 17
because we have sinned before the Lord, have disobeyed him, 18 and have not
listened to the voice of the Lord our God telling us to follow the commandments
which the Lord had ordained for us. 19 From the day when the Lord brought our
ancestors out of Egypt until today, we have been disobedient to the Lord our
God, we have been disloyal, refusing to listen to his voice. 20 And we are not
free even today of the disasters and curse which the Lord pronounced through
his servant Moses the day he brought our ancestors out of Egypt to give us a
land flowing with milk and honey. 21 We have not listened to the voice of the
Lord our God in all the words of those prophets he sent us; 22 but, each
following the dictates of our evil heart, we have taken to serving alien gods,
and doing what is displeasing to the Lord our God.
*The literal translation of "ancestors" in verses
17, 19, 20, 2:6, 19, 21, 24, 33, 34; 3:7, and 8 is
"fathers," referring to the hereditary ancestors of the people.
The confession of the people's sins is similar to Daniel 9:5-14, with echoes of Jeremiah 7:19, 24, and Nehemiah chapter 9. It marks the beginning of a prayer of lamentation and contrition, the themes that are the book's focus. The phrase "have not listened," to the voice of the Lord, with slight variation, is repeated in 1:18, 19, 21; 2:10, and 3:4.
Question #1: What three sins are confessed in verses 18, 21, and 22?
See the answers to the questions at the end of the lesson.
20 And we are not free even today of the disasters and curse which the Lord
pronounced through his servant Moses the day he brought our ancestors out of
Egypt to give us a land flowing with milk and honey.
In the prayer (Baruch 2:15-22), the Israelites in exile are recalling
Deuteronomy chapter 28, when Moses, in his final discourse to the new Exodus generation
preparing to enter the Promise Land forty years after leaving Egypt, listed
covenant blessings for obedience to the Lord's commands in
28:1-14, and a list
of covenant judgments for disobedience in
28:15-68.
Read Deuteronomy 28:1-68 and compare Moses's discourse to the people's confession of sins committed by their ancestors in Brauch 1:15-22. The judgments in Deuteronomy 28:15-19 contrast with the blessings promised in 28:3-6. Neglecting the Law or direct disobedience of Mosaic Law results in afflictions and calamities which will finally end in death (Deuteronomy 28:24). While health is a promised covenant blessing, pestilence, and epidemics will afflict a disobedient and unrepentant people (Deuteronomy 28:21-22). The people would be afflicted, and the land would suffer. The rains promised as covenant blessings would cease, producing a hot, scorching sky and ground as hard as iron and unable to support plant life. The once fertile land would become a desert (Deuteronomy 28:23-24). The curse judgments in verses 23-24 are the converse of the promised blessings in verses 7 and 10. Man, created to receive the blessings of fertility and mastery over the earth (Genesis 1:28), would become infertile, the land will also become infertile, and the earth will have mastery over the unfaithful Israelites who will be pursued by enemies, die, and return to the dust of the earth.
Deuteronomy 28:25 contrasts with 28:7 "the blessing is that Israel's enemies will flee in seven directions (the number seven symbolizes completeness). The curse is that Israel's defeat will be complete as they try to escape from their enemies in seven directions. Deuteronomy 28:25-26 prophesied defeat in battle and the ultimate curse "death. Moses described conditions so devastating that no one would be left to provide a proper burial for all the bodies of the dead. These are the covenant curses the exiles admit have caused their defeat and exile. The three conditions listed in the curse judgment of Deuteronomy 28:30 are all the exemptions from military service in time of war listed in Deuteronomy 20:5-7. Verses 31-34 describe the sufferings that would come after defeat by a foreign power, like the Babylonians. The prophecy in Deuteronomy 28:36-37 is that as a nation no longer under God's divine protection, the Israelites would be defeated in war, and the people and their king would be exiled into a foreign land. The exiles in Babylon realize that all the curse judgments Moses foretold for disobedience to God's commandments had fallen upon their generation.
The result of failing to live by the Law of Moses and infidelity to the covenant they swore to obey (Exodus 24:3, 8) is exile and death. According to the covenant judgments, the people of God had to suffer purification. In God's divine plan, the Babylonian Exile already stood in the shadow of the Cross of Jesus Christ, and the remnant of the Jewish people that returned from the Exile is one of the most transparent prefigurations of the Church.
21 We have not listened to the
voice of the Lord our God in all the words of those prophets he sent us; 22
but, each following the dictates of our evil heart, we have taken to serving
alien gods, and doing what is displeasing to the Lord our God.
Early in Jeremiah's ministry, he
warned the people of Jerusalem that paying "lip service" to God by worshiping
at the Temple would not save them (Jeremiah 7:3-11). Still, they did not listen
(Jeremiah 7:24).
Baruch 2:1-10 ~ The Lord Has Carried Out His Just Sentence
1 And so the Lord has carried out
the sentence which he passed on us, on our judges who governed Israel, on our
kings and leaders and on the people of Israel and of Judah; 2 what he did to
Jerusalem has never been paralleled under the wide heavens "in conformity with
what was written in the Law of Moses; 3 we were each reduced to eating the
flesh of our own sons and daughters. 4 Furthermore, he has handed them over
into the power of all the kingdoms that surround us, to be the contempt and
execration of all the neighboring peoples among whom the Lord scattered them. 5
Instead of being masters, they found themselves enslaved, because we had sinned
against the Lord our God by not listening to his voice. 6 Saving justice is the
Lord's; we and our ancestors have only the look of shame we bear today. 7 All
those disasters which the Lord pronounced against us have now befallen us. 8
And yet we have not tried to win the favor of the Lord by each of us renouncing
the dictates of our own wicked heart; 9 so the Lord has been alert to our
misdeeds and has brought disaster down on us since the Lord is upright in
everything he had commanded us to do, 10 and we have not listened to his voice
so as to follow the commandments which the Lord has ordained for us.
The lamentation continues in verses 1-5, recalling the sins that occurred during the siege of Jerusalem, which is in response to the oracle in Jeremiah 19:9. Again, the people confess disobedience to God and acknowledge that the calamities and misfortunes that fell upon them were punishments that they deserved. In their confession, there is a theological message concerning the Lord God's sovereignty over humans and their actions. The passage warns about what happens when humans fail to listen to God: they are in danger of acting not like men and women made in the image of God (cf. Genesis 1:27) but becoming enslaved to false gods and foreign enemies.
Since the people of Judah refused to listen to His prophets, God passed judgment on their
in conformity with what was written in the Law of Moses (verse 2) in Deuteronomy 28.
3 we were each reduced to eating the flesh of our own sons and daughters.
The Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in
587 BC fulfilled the curse judgment in Deuteronomy 28:53. The judgment read: During
the siege and in the distress to which your enemy will reduce you, you will eat
the offspring of your own body, the flesh of the sons and daughters given you
by Yahweh your God. Lamentations 2:20 testifies to that horrible event, and
the Jewish priest and historian Flavius Josephus recorded similar events during
the Roman siege of Jerusalem in AD 70. Josephus wrote: "There was a certain
woman ... her name was Mary [...], and it was now become impossible anyway for her
to find any more food [...] She then attempted a most unnatural thing; and
snatching up her son, who was a child sucking at her breast she said ... Come
on, be thou my food ...' as soon as she had said this, she slew her son; and then
roasted him, and ate the one half of him .... (The Wars of the Jews, 6.3.4).
7 All those disasters which the
Lord pronounced against us have now befallen us.
This verse is another reference to
the covenant judgments of Deuteronomy 28 and the disasters the covenant people
deserved for their covenant failures. However, the exiles also have hope of the
fulfillment of the promises in Deuteronomy 30 that foretold the return from
exile: And when all these words have come true for you "the blessing and the
curse, which I have offered you "if you meditate on them in your heart wherever
among the Nations Yahweh your God has driven you, if you return to Yahweh your
God, if with all your heart and with all your soul you obey his voice, you and
your children, in everything that I am laying down for you today, then Yahweh
your God will bring back from all the peoples among whom Yahweh your God has
scattered you (Deuteronomy 30:1-3).
10 and we have not listened to his voice so as to follow the commandments which the Lord has ordained for us.
Question #2: What did Jesus say in Matthew 11:15; 13:9, 43? What phrase did Jesus repeat three times? How does that relate to what God told Moses to tell the people in Deuteronomy 18:17-19 and the voice from Heaven at the Transfiguration?
Question #3: What did Jesus say concerning His commandments at His Last Supper Discourse in John 14:15, and what did St. John write in 1 John 2:3-5?
Baruch 2:11-26 ~ Prayer for Deliverance from Punishment
11 And now, Lord, God of Israel,
who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand, with signs and
wonders, with great power and with outstretched arm, to win yourself a name
such as you have today, 12 we have sinned, we have committed sacrilege; Lord
our God, we have broken all your precepts. 13 Let your anger turn from us since
we are no more than a little remnant among the nations where you have dispersed
us. 14 Listen, Lord, to our prayers and our entreaties; deliver us for your own
sake and let us win the favor of the people who have deported us, 15 so that
the whole world may know that you are the Lord our God, since Israel and his
descendants bear your name. 16 Look down, Lord, from you holy dwelling-place
and think of us, bow your ear and listen, 17 open your
eyes, Lord, and look; the dead down in Sheol, whose breath has been taken from
their bodies, are not the ones to give glory and due recognition to the Lord;
18 whoever is overcome with affliction, who goes along bowed down and frail,
with failing eyes and hungering soul, that is the one to give you glory and due
recognition, Lord. 19 We do not rely on the merits of our ancestors and of our
kings to offer you our humble plea, Lord our God. 20 No, you have sent down
your anger and your fury on us, as you threatened through your servants the
prophets when they said, 20 "The Lord says this: Bend your necks and serve the
king of Babylon,' and you will remain in the country which I gave to your
ancestors. 22 But if you do not listen to the voice of the Lord and serve the
king of Babylon, then I shall silence the shouts of rejoicing and mirth and
the voices of bridegroom and bride in the towns of Judah and the streets of
Jerusalem, and the whole country will be reduced to desert, with no inhabitants."
24 But we would not listen to your voice and serve the king of Babylon, and so
you carried out what you had threatened through your servants the prophets:
that the bones of our kings and of our ancestors would be dragged from their
resting places. 25 They were indeed tossed out to the heat of the day and the
frost of the night.' And people died in dreadful agony, from famine, sword and
plague. 26 And so, because of the wickedness of the House of Israel and the
House of Judah, you have made this House, that bears your name, what it is
today.
Baruch 2:11-35 contains an earnest appeal for God's divine mercy and the people's confession of sins.
Question #4: This part of the prayer begins by recalling what great event in Israel's history? See
Exodus 7:14-14:31.
15
so that the whole world may know that you are the Lord our God, since Israel
and his descendants bear your name.
The people of Judah (and Israel) were descendants of the Patriarch Jacob, whom
Yahweh renamed "Israel" in an encounter in Genesis 32:29. Therefore, the people
were sometimes referred to as the people of "the God of Israel" (Genesis 33:20;
Exodus 5:1). Their mission as a covenant people was to be witnesses to the One
True God, Yahweh, to the Gentile nations. When they fell into sin, they were no
longer credible witnesses.
17 open your eyes, Lord, and look; the dead down in Sheol, whose breath has been
taken from their bodies, are not the ones to give glory and due recognition to
the Lord;
Sheol in Hebrew and Hades in Greek refers to the abode of the dead to which all the
dead descended, both the righteous and the wicked, before the Resurrection of
Jesus. See Jesus's description of Sheol/Hades in Luke 16:19-31 in the Parable
of Lazarus and the Rich Man. It was to Sheol/Hades that Jesus descended from
His tomb to preach His Gospel of salvation to the spirits there and rescue the
righteous dead (Apostles' Creed; 1 Peter 3:18-4:6, and CCC 632-33).
After Jesus freed the righteous dead from Sheol/Hades it became a place of purification for those destined for Heaven but still requiring purification from unconfessed sins or mortal sins for which they were not fully atoned. Those who died in a state of grace went immediately to Heaven CCC 1023-29), while those who rejected Jesus's gift of eternal salvation went to the Hell of the Damned (CCC 1033-37). The Church now calls this state of purification Purgatory (CCC 1030-32). See the description of those in Purgatory in 1 Corinthians 3:10-15. The significant verse concerning the Godly fire of purification is: "... the one whose work is burnt down will suffer the loss of it, though he himself will be saved; he will be saved as someone might expect to be saved from a fire." In other words, that person whose bad works are "burned up" will escape by the "skin of his teeth," as one who has run through the flames, and his purification will mean he will be able to enter "sinless" into Heaven.
Question # 5: Verses 20-24 recall Jeremiah 27:8-12. What was Jeremiah's warning? Why did he tell them to submit?
25 They were indeed tossed out to the heat of the day and the frost of the
night.' And people died in dreadful agony, from famine, sword and plague.
These words threaten King Jehoiakim with being left without a proper burial (see
Jeremiah 22:19 and 36:30) and the people dying from the famine that engulfed
the besieged city of Jerusalem and a plague.
26 And so, because of the wickedness of the House of Israel and the House of Judah,
you have made this House, that bears your name, what it is today.
The "House" that bears Yahweh's name is the Jerusalem Temple (cf. Deuteronomy 12:11
and Jeremiah 7:11). What the Temple was "today" (in Baruch's time) was a burned-out ruin.
Baruch 2:27-35 ~ God's Promises Recalled
27 And yet, Lord our God, you have treated us in a way worthy of all your goodness
and boundless tenderness, 28 just as you had promised through your servant
Moses, the day you told him to write your Law in the presence of the
Israelites, and said, 29 "If you do not listen to my voice, this great and
innumerable multitude will certainly be reduced to a tiny few among the nations
where I shall scatter them "30 for I knew that, being an obstinate people, they
would not listen to me. But in the country of their exile, they will come to
themselves 31 and acknowledge that I am the Lord their God. I shall give them a
heart and an attentive ear, 32 and they will sing my praises in the country of
their exile, they will remember my name; 33 they will stop being obstinate and,
remembering what became of their ancestors who sinned before the Lord, will
turn from their evil deeds. 34 Then I shall bring them back to the country
which I promised on oath to their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and make
them masters in it. I shall make their numbers grow; they will not dwindle
again. 35 And I shall make an everlasting covenant with them; so that I am
their God and they are my people. And never again shall I drive my people
Israel out of the country which I have given them."
These verses do not quote Moses, but they present the substance of his last discourse in Deuteronomy 30:1-10, which envisioned exile, repentance, and restoration.
The restoration in verses 34-35 was only partially fulfilled in the return of the Jews from the Babylonian Exile (Ezra 1:1-11). A faithful remnant returned to Judah to rebuild the Temple. Still, the Jews faced another conquest by a foreign power when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the Second Temple in AD 70, forty years after Jesus's Resurrection. The Romans enslaved much of the population and spread them throughout the Roman Empire. Most Israelites see the fulfillment of the promise in the establishment of the nation of Israel by the United Nations in 1947 when Jews from across Europe returned to the Promised Land after the Holocaust. They were declared an independent nation in 1948 and fought a war against tremendous odds against Muslim nations to secure their victory. They are still fighting to survive with God's help today.
Baruch 3:1-8 ~ The Exiled Israelites Cry out to God
1 Almighty Lord, God of Israel, a soul in anguish, a troubled heart now cries to
you: Listen and 2 have pity, Lord, for we have sinned before you. 3 You sit
enthroned for ever, while we are perishing for ever. 4 Almighty Lord, God of
Israel, hear the prayer of the dead of Israel, of the children of those who
have sinned against you and have not listened to the voice of the Lord their
God; hence the disasters which dog us. 5 Do not call to
mind the misdeeds of our ancestors, but remember instead your power and your
name. 6 You are indeed the Lord our God and we will praise you, Lord, 7
since you have put respect for you in our hearts to encourage us to call on
your name. We long to praise you in our exile, for we have rid our hearts of
the wickedness of our ancestors who sinned against you. 8 Look, today we are
still in exile where you have scattered us as something contemptible, accursed,
condemned, for all the misdeeds of our ancestors who had abandoned the Lord our God.
3 You sit enthroned for ever, while we are perishing for ever. 4 Almighty Lord,
God of Israel, hear the prayer of the dead of Israel, of the children of those
who have sinned against you and have not listened to the voice of the Lord
their God; hence the disasters which dog us.
After an anguished confession of sin, the exiles remind God that they have been
brought so near to death that they no longer feel like the living (cf.
Isaiah 59:10; Lamentations 3:6; Ezekiel 37:22ff).
5 Do
not call to mind the misdeeds of our ancestors [fathers], but remember instead
your power and your name.
The new generation of exiles plead with God in verses 5-8 to forget the sins of their
fathers and instead remember the great acts of power He made on behalf of His
covenant people. Their desire is for God to make the same acts of power on
their behalf as they wait for the fulfillment of His promises of restoration.
The prose up to this point will change to poetry in Parts III and IV (3:9—5:9).
Answers to the questions:
Answer to question #1: Three
sins are confessed:
Answer to question #2:
In Matthew 11:15, 13:9, and 43,
Jesus said, "Anyone who has ears should listen." Jesus's statement recalls
what God told Moses to tell the Israelites in Deuteronomy 18:16-19 when He
promised to one day send a prophet like Moses and put His words in his mouth,
followed by the warning, "Anyone who refuses to listen to my words, spoken
by him in my name, will have to render an account to me." That promised
supreme prophet is Jesus Christ. At the Transfiguration, God's voice was heard
from Heaven saying, "Listen to him!" (Matthew 17:5; Mark 9:7; Luke 9:35).
Answer to question #3: At His Last Supper Discourse in John 14:15, Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." In 1 John 2:3-5, St. John wrote: "In this way, we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says, I know him' without keeping his commandments, is a liar, and truth has no place in him."
Answer to question #4: The people remind God of His great work in the Exodus liberation.
Answer to question #5: In Jeremiah 27:8-12, Jeremiah warned the people and their king to submit to the Babylonians and their king, Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah told them to submit and to endure exile in atonement for their sins.
Catechism references:
Genesis 1:27 (CCC 355, 383, 1604, 2331)
Deuteronomy 28-30 (CCC 710)
Michal Hunt, Copyright © 2024 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.